The Way of Passion is based on an extraordinary lecture series Harvey gave at the California Institute of Integral Studies in Spring 1993, a series whose core group of students grew by word of mouth to crowds of hundreds.

Jelalludin Rumi (1207-1273) led the quiet life of an Islamic teacher in the central Anatolia (modern Turkey) until the age of thirty-seven, when he met a wandering dervish named Shams Tabrizâ€”through whom he encountered the Divine Presence in a way that utterly transformed him.

Today more Americans than ever consider themselves to be "spiritual" people, and yet attendance at religious institutions is down, perhaps because many of us are searching for a way to encounter the divine on our own terms.

Whether it’s based on the Buddhist vision of the Bodhisattva or the Christian concept of service, the mystic’s journey is one taken on behalf of all humanity—and that journey is the same in all traditions. This wide range of selections brings readers the essential themes and personalities of the mystic experience.

In this profoundly uplifting book, authors and sacred activists Andrew Harvey and Chris Saade call us to the next paradigm in human relations: love connections that are solidly grounded in individual authenticity, and passionately focused on service and solidarity.